Louisiana privatizing veterans home medical care

BATON ROUGE – The full-time doctors and pharmacists on staff at Louisiana’s war veterans homes are going away. Instead, the state Department of Veterans Affairs plans to contract with outside doctors and drug companies to provide those services.
The Civil Service Commission agreed Wednesday to let the veterans department privatize the medical care and pharmacy delivery services as a way to save money.
Lane Carson, secretary of the department, says the move will save $1.5 million a year that can be used to help boost the pay for workers at the five war veterans homes.
Carson says none of the privately owned nursing homes around the state have a full-time doctor or pharmacist on site, and he says the “vast majority” of veterans homes around the country don’t have them either.•To sign up for CityBusiness Daily Updates, click here.